Democrats’ Special Election Winning Streak Makes Me Wanna Lib Out Like It’s Summer 2016

I actually have no desire to ever lib out again like we did a decade ago. Even if a Democrat wins the presidency in 2028 (hopefully we have an election!), we are a different country that really doesn’t deserve to truly celebrate anything for a long time. That said, Democrats have won every special election and flipped a handful of red districts since Trump re-entered office—while the GOP has flipped none. I can almost feel the spirit of my “I’m With Her 2016” t-shirt rising from whatever landfill it ended up in. 

In Louisiana over the weekend, Democrats won another special election for the state House in a district that Trump dominated in the last three elections. Chasity Verret Martinez defeated her Republican opponent, Brad Daigle—a small business owner—with a stunning 62% of the vote to Daigle’s 38%. Her win was even more impressive given that Republicans outspent her 3 to 1. 

Martinez was running to replace Democrat Chad Brown, who was recently appointed by Gov. Jeff Landry to serve as Louisiana’s commissioner of Alcohol and Tobacco Control. So yes, a Democrat replaced another Democrat, but because Trump won the district by 13 points in 2024, the GOP had false hope that they could easily flip this seat from blue to red. Her campaign focused on increased access to health care, including substance-abuse and mental health services, as well as government transparency and support for public education. 

Last week in Texas, Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped the largest Republican county in the country. Trump won the district by 17 points, and Rehmet won by 14 points; it’s the first time in 40 years a Democrat will hold the seat. Two weeks ago, in Minnesota, Democrats Meg Luger-Nikolai and Shelley Buck won special elections for the state’s two open House seats, bringing Republicans’ previous House majority to an even 67-67 split. 

In December, Bolts Magazine reported that Democrats flipped 21 percent of GOP-held legislative seats in 2025, gaining 25 House and Senate seats previously held by Republicans. Dems also swept all 13 statewide elections in November, gained the largest majority in the Virginia House since the 1980s, and broke Republican supermajorities in Mississippi and Iowa’s state Senates. 

Visions of “Stronger Together” signs are dancing in my head. 

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